Petition: S4ME 2023 - Cochrane: Withdraw the harmful 2019 Exercise therapy for CFS review

9,984 signatures at time of posting.

https://www.change.org/p/cochrane-withdraw-the-harmful-2019-exercise-therapy-for-cfs-review

 

10,000

 

10, 064 signatures at time of posting.

https://www.change.org/p/cochrane-withdraw-the-harmful-2019-exercise-therapy-for-cfs-review

 

Good to see a surge in signing and some new comments including French and German responses.

Thank you to those reconnecting with international groups.

 

https://www.change.org/p/cochrane-withdraw-the-harmful-2019-exercise-therapy-for-cfs-review

Currently on 10, 091

The ME Association kindly shared on Twitter.

 

A nice bump up to 10,246 signatures at time of posting.

https://www.change.org/p/cochrane-withdraw-the-harmful-2019-exercise-therapy-for-cfs-review

 

This is so good!!!

Thanks everyone who has worked so hard to write, promote the petition getting the word out about the negative influence of the review on our access to healthcare, thank you also to everyone out there who supported and signed this petition.

 

I wrote to Catherine Spencer, CEO of Cochrane yesterday. Copying in COPE and Jordi Pardo Pardo (interim chair of Trustees). It was in response to her writing telling me to use the "internal" complaints resolution procedure to complain about the Trustees when I am not part of the Cochrane community. I forgot to copy in Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert, the Publisher (Wiley), so I will forward this to her today. And maybe also the IAG address. There's been no January update from Hilda...

7 February 2024

Dear Catherine (cc Jordi Pardo Pardo, COPE)

I have made allegations of misconduct, firstly against the Editor in Chief of the Cochrane Library. And now, additionally, I want to make an allegation of misconduct against the former trustees for refusing to independently investigate my allegation of misconduct.

COPE makes it clear journals should “have a clearly described process for handling allegations, however they are brought to the journal's or publisher’s attention. Journals must take seriously allegations of misconduct pre-publication and post-publication. Policies should include how to handle allegations from whistleblowers” https://publicationethics.org/misconduct

The link you sent me (https://community.cochrane.org/orga...nd-supporters/complaints-resolution-procedure) is for members and supporters of Cochrane. This procedure is not appropriate to me. I am neither a member or a supporter of Cochrane. I have just deactivated my account which I was not aware I still had.

Cochrane currently has no policy on handling allegations of publication misconduct from people outside its membership or supporter base.

Please can you give me a clearly described process of how you will handle my allegations of misconduct, as stipulated by COPE.

Best wishes

Caroline


From: Catherine Spencer
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2024 9:15 AM
To: Caroline Struthers
Subject: Re: Complaint about Trustees

Dear Caroline

Please find a link to our complaints process. Please use this to make your complaint.
https://community.cochrane.org/orga...nd-supporters/complaints-resolution-procedure
Kind regards

Catherine

From: Catherine Spencer
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2024 1:27 PM
To: Caroline Struthers
Subject: FW: Complaint about Trustees

Dear Caroline
Thank you for your message. I am confirming how you can make a complaint about the former Trustees you name below.
I will come back to you when I have an answer.
Kind regards
Catherine

9 January 2024 to admin@cochrane.org

Subject: Complaint about Trustees

I am writing in a personal capacity and not as a representative of my employer.

Please can you let me know how to make a complaint about former charity trustees Tracey Howe and Catherine Marshall?

They are still listed as Trustees on the Charity Commission website although they both stepped down last year. Please update. https://register-of-charities.chari...ity-search/-/charity-details/1045921/trustees

Best wishes

Caroline

 

In short, the point I'm making is that The Cochrane Library, which is a profit-making journal published by Wiley, has no procedure for dealing with allegations of publication misconduct made by people who are not members or supporters of the Cochrane Collaboration, a charity.

 

And on Twitter

 

10, 304 signatures at time of posting.

https://www.change.org/p/cochrane-withdraw-the-harmful-2019-exercise-therapy-for-cfs-review

 

Short update re my un-investigated allegation of misconduct about Karla Soares-Weiser.

As Catherine Spencer hadn't replied to my email, I emailed Jordi Pardo Pardo (interim board chair) to follow up yesterday saying the complaints procedure I was directed to by Catherine was for members and supporters of Cochrane and therefore not applicable to me.
https://community.cochrane.org/orga...nd-supporters/complaints-resolution-procedure

I also asked him why the "whistleblower policy" said to be in development four and a half years ago had not been published. He wrote to say that I should use that complaints procedure anyway. As he didn't answer my question about the missing whistleblower policy, I wrote back to ask again about it. No reply as yet. Yesterday, I also submitted another expression of concern to COPE about Cochrane not having followed their own procedure for dealing with my allegation, or if they did, not informing me that Soares-Weiser had refused to engage with it. And also that there was still no whistleblower policy, in breach of COPE guidelines on how to handle allegations of misconduct https://publicationethics.org/misconduct

 

Doesn't Cochrane have some board or something to deal with consumer complaints? They make a big deal out of pretending to engage with the public. Or is it really all just pretend? Because really there is no independent process here to deal with complaints about the people at the top. Or about anyone. What a dysfunctional organization.

 

No, there is no independent process to deal with complaints about people at the top. They are currently trying to recruit a new chair of trustees. (https://community.cochrane.org/news/governing-board-chair-recruitment-update) Jordi Pardo Pardo is an interim chair. The previous co-chairs Tracey Howe and Catherine Marshall both left abruptly last year, shortly after they decreed that my allegation of misconduct was not going to be investigated, and after the Charity Commission wrote to them reminding them of their duties as Trustees to ensure Cochrane's publications were scientifically rigorous.